Episode Notes

No new episode this week. Instead, we're re-releasing an old episode.

We review the lyrically written coming-of-age story Somebody Loves You by Mona Arshi. It's about Ruby's struggles to fit in against the backdrop of racism, and, her mother's bouts with mental illness.

Thank you all for listening. We will be back in the new year. If you want to get in touch, email [email protected] or DM us on social media. Send us your recommendations or requests!

Buy the book here and we'll be kicked some money.

About the author: Mona Arshi was born in West London, where she still lives. She worked as a human rights lawyer with Liberty for a decade before receiving a master’s in creative writing from the University of East Anglia. Her debut poetry collection Small Hands was published in 2015, winning the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. Mona Arshi regularly appears on BBC Radio 4. Her poems have been published in The Sunday Times, The Guardian and the Times of India and most recently the London Underground.

About the book :

A teacher asked me a question, and I opened my mouth as a sort of formality but closed it softly, knowing with perfect certainty that nothing would ever come out again. Ruby gives up talking at a young age. Her mother isn’t always there to notice; she comes and goes and goes and comes, until, one day, she doesn’t. Silence becomes Ruby’s refuge, sheltering her from the weather of her mother’s mental illness and a pressurized suburban atmosphere. Plangent, deft, and sparkling with wry humour, Somebody Loves You is a moving exploration of how we choose or refuse to tell the stories that shape us.

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